Heinz Kerry rebukes heckler; crowd cheer
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| Mon, 09-27-2004 - 2:10pm |
PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) - A group of 600 Democrats crowded the 4H Auditorium at the State Fairgrounds Friday hoping to see for themselves whether presidential candidate John Kerry's wife was as outspoken and sharp-tongued as some have described her.
Teresa Heinz Kerry delivered for her supporters when she talked back to a heckler who implied her husband's a flip-flopper.
During a question and answer session, a young man demanded to know why Kerry voted to give Bush authority to attack Iraq but voted against an $87 billion appropriation bill to support the war effort there.
"Is that the kind of thing he would do as president?," the man asked.
Heinz Kerry sharply asked the man whether he had read the legislation that was voted on.
When he said no, she told him that Kerry had supported $60 billion in military appropriations for Iraq, but would not vote for the full $87 billion because he considered it a "blank check." Kerry was one of 11 Democrats to vote against the bill.
"And we knew they'd already given Haliburton millions in no-bid contracts," she snapped, referring to the company formerly led by Vice President Dick Cheney.
"If you want to say (Kerry) flip-flopped, just say so, don't try to hide," Heinz Kerry scolded.
The young man responsed with chanting "Four more years!" as he walked out of the auditorium. The partisan crowd's cheer of "Six more weeks!" quickly drowned him out.
Roberto Costales of Canon City liked the way she dealt with her heckler.
"Did you notice how she handled that one guy? I bet she doesn't back down from anybody," he laughed.
In appearances here and before a crowd of 1,700 in Fort Collins, Heinz Kerry echoed her husband's views about terrorism, national security, crime, health care and education.
She said the United States needs a different approach in the world.
"The way we live in peace in a family, in a marriage, in the world, is not by threatening people, is not by showing off your muscles. It's by listening, by giving a hand sometimes, by being intelligent, by being open and by setting high standards," she said at the CSU rally.
In Pueblo, Heinz Kerry sounded a similar theme, criticizing the Bush administration for sending warning signals to Iran about developing nuclear weapons.
"There are about 50 countries in the world that have the capability to build nuclear weapons. Are we going to attack them all?" she said.
Gina Maggrett, of Pueblo, liked what she heard.
"(She's portrayed) as this caustic person but I thought she was really warm and intelligent. A lovely person," she said.

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Attractive? Maybe if I were Stevie Wonder, and could not see. She is what we used to call in college a two bagger in my opinion.
I am not hostile, I just think that the First Lady should be someone that stands by her husband, and keeps her mouth shut. It seems that recently, the ones that seem to be troublesome are the Democratic ones. Laura Bush is not trying to write policy, or inject her opinion into the debate, Barbara Bush didn't either, and neither did Nancy Reagan. Hillary Clinton......well we all know about that, and now there is Teresa.
Why cant they look back at Roslyn Carter, a woman who had class, and take a lesson or two from her?
You like the loudmouth, opinionated, sticking their nose into business where they do not belong type.
I bet you liked Hillary Clinton as First Lady too.
I love the footage that was shown on the news last week when Teresa was questioned by reporters, and John comes back to fetch her away before she puts her foot in her mouth again.
Hillary was annoyed that when Bill was elected that she could not be named as the Attorney General, and wanted a hand in picking that person. This is one example. Another is Hillary's failed attempt at National Healthcare, where the brainchild was none other than Howard Dean.
Yeah, takes a lot of brains to answer a reporter's question with "shove it". Your remark about Laura Bush is snide and stereotypical, insulting to wives and mothers everywhere. I guess because she raised her family and isn't strident and obnoxious she must be stupid?
First of all, I know of NO ONE on the right who is against birth control-maybe against handing it out to our children in school without our permission, but not against consenting adults using it. Secondly, just because someone believes an unborn child is a human life who doesn't deserve to be slaughtered does not mean they expect women to "stand behind" their husbands. One has nothing to do with the other. In my opinion the fact that women are in so many instances forced to abort their children in order to be on a level playing field with men is evidence of a backward thinking view of women's rights-in order to be equal we are forced to deny one of the very things that makes us female, our ability to bear children. Abortion has created that kind of world for us, one in which being a mother puts you at a competitive disadvantage to men.
Your portrayal of conservative women is simplistic, stereotypical and highly insulting to this one.
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